6,369 research outputs found
Induction of WNT16 via peptide-mRNA nanoparticle-based delivery maintains cartilage homeostasis
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive joint disease that causes significant disability and pain and for which there are limited treatment options. We posit that delivery of anabolic factors that protect and maintain cartilage homeostasis will halt or retard OA progression. We employ a peptide-based nanoplatform to deliver Wingless and the name Int-1 (WNT) 16 messenger RNA (mRNA) to human cartilage explants. The peptide forms a self-assembled nanocomplex of approximately 65 nm in size when incubated with WNT16 mRNA. The complex is further stabilized with hyaluronic acid (HA) for enhanced cellular uptake. Delivery of peptide-WNT16 mRNA nanocomplex to human cartilage explants antagonizes canonical β-catenin/WNT3a signaling, leading to increased lubricin production and decreased chondrocyte apoptosis. This is a proof-of-concept study showing that mRNA can be efficiently delivered to articular cartilage, an avascular tissue that is poorly accessible even when drugs are intra-articularly (IA) administered. The ability to accommodate a wide range of oligonucleotides suggests that this platform may find use in a broad range of clinical applications
Dependence of temperatures and kinetic freeze-out volume on centrality in Au-Au and Pb-Pb collisions at high energy
Centrality-dependent double-differential transverse momentum spectra of
negatively charged particles (, and ) at
mid-(pseudo)rapidity interval in nuclear collisions are analyzed by the
standard distribution in terms of multi-component. The experimental data
measured in gold-gold (Au-Au) collisions by the PHENIX Collaboration at the
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and in lead-lead (Pb-Pb) collisions by
the ALICE Collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are studied. The
effective temperature, initial temperature, kinetic freeze-out temperature,
transverse flow velocity and kinetic freeze-out volume are extracted from the
fitting to transverse momentum spectra. We observed, that the mentioned five
quantities increase with the increase of event centrality due to the fact that
the average transverse momentum increases with the increase of event
centrality. This renders that larger momentum (energy) transfer and further
multiple-scattering had happened in central centrality.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures. Advances in High Energy Physics, accepte
Assessment of Factors Influencing Beneficiary Participation in Fadama II Project in Niger State, Nigeria
The paper investigated factors influencing beneficiary participation in Fadama II project in Niger State. Three LGAs out of eleven LGAs that benefited in Fadama II project were randomly selected for the study. To this end, one Fadama Community Association (FCA) and five Fadama User Groups (FUGs) were randomly selected from each LGA that benefited. Five beneficiaries were also randomly sampled from each FUG. Seventy five (75) beneficiaries were randomly sampled for the study. Descriptive statistics and logit regression model were used to analyze the data collected. However, large proportion of the beneficiaries participated in problem identification (69.3%) and project implementation (80%) in the stages of project development. Women participation in Fadama II project was identified to be low (28.0%). Meanwhile, educational level and membership of cooperative society significantly influenced participation (P < 0.01). Household size was a positive factor that significantly influenced participation (P < 0.05) in Fadama II project in the study area.Keywords: Fadama II Project, Beneficiary, Participation, Fadama Community Association, Fadama User GroupNigerian Journal of Basic and Applied Science (2011), 19 (2): 248-25
Structural colouration in the Himalayan monal, hydrophobicity and refractive index modulated sensing
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